INSIDE TECHNOLOGY.

Platinum Program Brings Internet Access To Lower-income Children

December 14, 1998|By Andrew Zajac and Jon Van.

Concerned that children from poor families aren't getting exposure to the Internet and other facets of computer technology, Platinum Technology Inc. in late 1997 set up a program called Digital Schoolhouse to teach low-income youngsters about the on-line world.

After a pilot year, during which 1,500 Chicago schoolchildren received a day of training on how to use the Internet, Digital Schoolhouse is expanding, with a goal of reaching 7,500 kids in Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia by the end of next year.

Diane Kastiel, who runs the program for Platinum, said many schools have Net access, "but the problem is they don't know how to use it."

Platinum brought students from Chicago schools, among them Rachel Carson School on the city's Southwest Side, to a specially designed classroom at the company's facility in Lisle and provided hands-on instruction for teachers and pupils.

Carson Principal Kathleen Mayer said students appreciated the field-trip feel of the visit, but benefited most from a tight instructor-student ratio of 4-1. "It's usually 32-1," Mayer said. "To have an adult paying attention to them and showing them step-by-step was very important."

To make sure the lessons stick, Digital Schoolhouse is forming a once-a-week after-school club with a Platinum-designed, Web-based curriculum. Carson and Samuel Morse School will host clubs in the city. Platinum, Interface Cellular Communications and the Chicago Public School Board will announce sponsorship of the technology lab at Morse Thursday.

Digital Schoolhouse operations at Platinum offices in Los Angeles and Philadelphia will begin in 1999.

Kastiel said what has been most gratifying is the number of students making the connection between surfing the Web and a job. "They're asking, `How can I turn this into a career?' They're right there," Kastiel said.

Platinum has committed $2.5 million through 1999 to its Digital Schoolhouse Foundation, and is looking for financial partners, Kastiel said.

High honor: The nation's highest award for technological innovation, the National Medal of Technology, has been awarded to four scientists at St. Louis-based Monsanto Corp. who are regarded as the forefathers of agricultural biotechnology.

The four men--Robert T. Fraley, Robert B. Horsch, Ernest G. Jaworski and Stephen G. Rogers--were regarded as mavericks by their colleagues when they developed a method to change the genetic makeup of plants.

The four will together receive one of five awards to be presented next month by President Clinton at the White House.

Carbon source: An estimated 3 billion used tires are piled up in the U.S., gathering rainwater and helping mosquitoes breed.

There are several potential uses for the old tires, such as a source of oil and gases, that researchers are exploring. One possible use could be as a source of activated carbon employed in clean-air applications.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are doing feasibility studies on the possibility of old tires as a source of activated carbon.

"In the United States alone, more than 200 million tires are disposed of annually," said Mark Rood, a professor of environmental engineering. "These waste tires can serve as an inexpensive and plentiful feedstock for carbon adsorbents that have commercial value in gas separation, storage and clean-up applications."

In early tests, carbon derived from old tires has performed as well as commercially available carbon now in use.

Prize winner: Hytel Group Inc. of Hampshire was a regional champion and statewide finalist in the recent Illinois Manufacturers Association Team Excellence Award Competition held at the Rosemont Convention Center.

The competition consisted of a presentation by management and non-management employees about how they solved problems and made improvements in a manufacturing or customer service problem.

Hytel President Dirk McCoy said he was pleased with the showing because Hytel, with 90 employees, was competing against far larger firms like Caterpillar. "Teamwork is an essential part of what we do," McCoy said. "They did a great job."

The 6-year-old company makes high-density electronics assemblies used in fiber-optic and wireless communications, automobile sensors and medical devices.

Iridium calling: In the wake of the destruction wreaked this fall by Hurricane Mitch, Motorola Inc. and its satellite telephone spin-off, Iridium LLC, shipped 46 satellite phones to Central America for use by disaster relief and senior government officials.

Phones were parceled out to officials in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua with the promise of free air time through the end of 1998.

Iridium offers a phone connection almost anywhere in the world using a combination of 66 Motorola-built satellites and land-based wireless systems. Motorola spokesman Robert Edwards said the system has logged about 1,100 disaster relief calls from afflicted areas so far.

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